


Ya'aburnee

by elvengypsypheonix



Category: Fast and the Furious Series
Genre: F/M, Post-Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 04:28:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17277077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elvengypsypheonix/pseuds/elvengypsypheonix
Summary: "Did you love me?"The question came out of nowhere, and as he slowly put down the wrench he had been using on the vehicle in front of him, he wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to think.





	Ya'aburnee

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first foray into the Fast world, so crossing fingers it's okay.
> 
> This takes place between Fast and the Furious 6, and Tokyo Drift/Furious 7.

"Did you love me?"  
  
The question came out of nowhere, and as he slowly put down the wrench he had been using on the vehicle in front of him, he wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to think.  
  
Turning slowly, he stared at the woman across the garage from him, leaning against the wall with one foot resting on the wall behind her.  
  
He recognized that pose, knew she could stay there or push off and be out of the room in less than a minute if she wanted. It was her flight or fight stance.  
  
Didn't know if she knew that.  
  
He did though.  
  
He took a slow, long breath, wondering what exactly was the appropriate response in this situation. He knew he loved her, had loved her most of his life. He also understood that she didn't know that, not anymore. A stupid car accident and a bullet had taken away a lifetime of memories, leaving this amazing, beautiful, funny, caring woman in front of him... who was still a shell of the person she had been before she tried to save his sorry ass.  
  
He shouldn't have been surprised that she asked, now that he thought about it.  
  
She didn't remember their lifetime together, even if they were only in their thirties they had lived a lifetime together before he watched her be buried. Well, the memory of her as it happened, hadn't known that of course at the time, had thought he had lost his chance to ever make right his mistakes and was watching his beautiful, fiery, latina be laid to rest in the cold, unforgiving ground.  
  
He'd done the only thing he'd known how to, destroy those that had taken her from him and lose himself running from the truth of what his own actions had cost.  
  
Fate had been kinder to him than he ever expected. To learn that the girl he loved above everything else, including himself, was alive was like learning to breathe again. Learning she didn't remember him, remember their family, friends, or life together had been like a kick to the balls. Intense pain as every nerve flared to life in protest, that faded to a dull ache he knew would disappear eventually, far sooner than he would have liked, and yet nowhere near as long as it felt like while experiencing it.  
  
He'd brought her home, returned them to the world they had known and loved in their younger days. Given her back the room she'd used in her youth before they became 'Dom and Letty', given her space to figure herself out and not pushed as much as he was capable of. Didn't mean he didn't watch her constantly, usually, hopefully when she wasn't looking. Didn't mean he didn't have to fight a constant urge to walk up to her and pull her body against his and just keep her there to remind himself that she was real, that it wasn't all another dream sent to torment his heart and mind, to destroy his nights and haunt his days.  
  
He did it though, fought the urges to hold her, to love her, let her set the pace as she learned about who she had been from people besides him.  
  
She and Han spent the most time together, Han telling her stories of the things they had done in the Dominican Republic, and in Mexico before then when she had met Han first trying to hunt his ass down. Han didn't expect much from her, content to let her be Letty, occasionally tell her a story about some past exploit, but was just as happy to talk about places across Europe they had both happened to visit at some point or another in the time since they'd last seen each other in the DR - not that she remembered that part.  
  
He had a feeling the fact she didn't remember Gisele helped, and she was happy to listen to him tell stories about Europe without the unexpected comment about how the listener could so see Gisele doing that. Han knew the others were grieving the Israeli warrior as well, but his grief was so strong it wore on him to have to share it.  
  
He understood that feeling well, having hated talking about Letty while with his sister and Brian in L.A., worse as they traveled south, hell on earth when Vince had thrown Letty's loss in his face in Rio. After Rio, they learned to not mention her, probably thinking to avoid upsetting Elena.  
  
It was easier with Elena, he talked about Letty probably far more than was healthy if he was trying to have a relationship with someone, but the woman got it, sharing her stories about her lost husband as often as he shared his tales about his lost wife. Not that Elena had truly known the full extent of his relationship with Letty, no one had... they had no evidence of their wedding, it wasn't a legally binding one, simply before God and each other.  
  
More than enough for him and her...  
  
Not enough that he'd bring it up while she couldn't remember.  
  
He knew he would one day if they found their way back to each other without her memory. He'd hold her in the night, listening to the quiet of the house and her even breaths, and tell her of a night in the heat of the Dominican summer, of promises made with a silver chain to bind them and a cross that had started in her hands, passed to his, and gone back and forth ever since.  
  
That cross was one of the few things that he regretted about the events in London, that she had lost it without knowing what it meant. Well, she didn't exactly lose it, Shaw took it, one more reason to hate the man.  
  
He raised his eyes to her face, watching her as she watched him, waiting for him to make some kind of a response.  
  
"That an answer you're really ready for?" he asked gruffly, not wanting to scare her away with the truth, yet knowing he probably could only trim the truth so far.  
  
"Look, man," she began then paused, her voice was softer when she started a moment later, the initial first spark of hostility gone. "Dom... I know we had something going on. For quite a long time from what I've put together between what you said in London, what the pictures in the house show, and what Mia _won't_ say. And God knows that girl says a lot, so reading between the lines reveals more than she's probably aware..."  
  
He had to smile at the look of frustrated annoyance on her face.  
  
Mia had always been able to put that look on her face, rambling about something or other... School, boys, dresses and make-up, the shit she read in the paper each day. Letty had sat and listened to it all, giving all the impression of the loyal friend she was to Mia, and then later on looked at him and begged him to throw a bottle or something at her next time to help her through it all if he wasn't gonna just be nice and knock her out of her misery for a few hours.  
  
"Point is," Letty continued, clueless to his internal thoughts and facial expressions as she had been looking down while she talked. "we had this thing apparently for years. And there were plenty of issues with car chasers and living on the run, and all kinda shit. So, I can't help wondering, needing to hear from you, you know? Maybe it will make why you pulled that crazy ass stunt in Spain make sense..."  
  
She looked up at him then, and he sucked in a breath at the intense look in her eyes, knowing there was no way he was getting out of this conversation. He crossed over to the wall next to her, leaning back so he stood similarly yet different, he didn't need to put a leg up for a quick push off if he decided to run...  
  
Course he wasn't planning on running.  
  
His arms crossed over his chest, and he stared out across the garage he had grown up in, that she had grown up in and saved while he was locked up.  
  
"There wasn't something about you, first time I saw you. You were a scrawny kid and far too annoying for my good then, for years after. Then you went away one summer and came back all grown up, so I decided to show off for you. Course, I already mentioned a little about that one back in London."  
  
She smirked, he could see her lip raise next to him, and nodded. He smiled, glad to see that she wasn't quite going to interrupt, then continued on.  
  
"Took a while to convince you that I was serious about you, about us. Earned that problem with all those car chasers. Those two years between us in age really bit me in the ass while I was trying to convince you to give us a chance. You let me take you to your Junior Prom though, mostly to please your Mom, my Dad, and Mia. Gave me a chance to prove that you were all I wanted to be looking at, as I ignored every girl there. You let me take you out after that, a meal here, a drive there, then you stopped arguing that you weren't my girl just before the beginning of your Senior Year. I kissed you the first time you didn't argue with me, and we ended up in the backseat of that Charger before the night was over... No matter how much I tried to convince you that we should be waiting for a better location than the beach and the back of a car."  
  
She snorted, he smiled, "You were seventeen and looking back we were so damn young. I'd never change a moment, but I can imagine had your Dad been alive he'd have skinned me alive while my Dad sharpened the blade. We kept it quiet, just how far we had gone, until after your Mom died. You moved in with us and finished Senior Year, and my Dad figured out pretty quick you were sneaking into my room at night. Saw you graduate, then we lost him, and it all went to hell... I ended up in Lompoc, you were left to help Mia and the boys survive, keep everything afloat. I knew I loved you long before all that, but by the time I got out, I pretty much worshipped the ground you walked on. You were always so much stronger than anyone gave you credit, even me."  
  
"So, you're saying you did love me?" she asked quietly.  
  
"Woman, I loved you with every piece of me," he admitted with a long sigh, wishing so much was different. "The good, the bad, it was all yours. You had me wrapped around your little finger, put up with all my bullshit, and yet would let me save face in front of everyone we knew. You kept me going when I would have fallen apart time and again trying to find a way to survive outside of Lompoc, accepted me for all my faults and never held my mistakes against me. God only knows why cause I made a ton. You just took me all, one big package, which was good cause I know I was a better man because of you."  
  
"Looks like you were doing just fine when you all thought I was six feet under. I think you don't give yourself enough credit."  
  
He smiled, he couldn't help it. She always got on to him about having more faith in himself. "I was doing a good show," he countered, "The job in Rio, that was about getting everyone set up so they could live their lives without worry financially, and a bit of payback for that bastard that ran the city the way did. Full on payback after his men killed Vince," he acknowledged. "Knew the only thing he cared about was his money." She nodded, he noted it and moved on, "I had to keep going for Mia's sake, Brian and little Jack's... but I was just existing. Thinking you had died trying to save me, it nearly destroyed me. Couldn't follow you though, they needed someone to protect them while they built their own piece of happiness and created the protections they needed."  
  
"So... Spain?" she turned her head to look at him, a small knowing look to her face, hints of that same look she used to use when she caught him in a tale that he had to face up to.  
  
"I knew what it was like to live without you. Knew I didn't want to do that again, I couldn't bury you again. Maybe we won't have what we once did, but I couldn't just watch you die. And if there was a way to save you, I was gonna be stupid and take it. If you died for real, I was sure as hell going with you."  
  
"Ya'aburnee," she spoke and he wasn't sure where that word came from, let alone what it meant. Must have been written all over his face, because she just smirked, that knowing smirk of hers that he loved so much. "Arabic word, literally means 'you bury me'."  
  
"Umm, what?" he turned to fully look at her. Didn't she just get the fact he hadn't wanted to bury her again...  
  
"There's no English equivalent," Letty shrugged, "From what I heard, it's used to describe a love so deep, you can't imagine living life without them. You honestly hope that you die first, cause you don't want to face life after they're gone."  
  
"Ya'aburnee," he let the phrase roll over his tongue, pretty sure he was fucking up the pronunciation and thanking the universe a native speaker wasn't around to hear him screw it up. Her half smile proved he'd have to work on it. "Yeah, I guess that describes how much I love you," he continued with a shrug.  
  
She nodded, pushed herself off the wall, "I know it might not mean much... especially as it's not like I remember it any," she began as she stepped away, looking over her shoulder at him. "From everything I've been reading in the things Mia saved that I wrote... that Letty felt the same way."  
  
"You're all the same Letty," he countered quietly. "Maybe you don't remember what happened, maybe you and I won't have a happy ending as some people might imagine... You're still the same Letty I knew, and I can accept not having you as my lover if it means I get to see you like this, up and walking around, living your life. Just so you know..."  
  
Letty gave a small nod, then started towards the door without another word. He watched her go, not wanting to push her, wishing for so much more than what he could accept. She stopped in the doorway, one hand resting on the frame, her back still to him as her head turned just the slightest so he'd be able to hear her.  
  
"We may have had ya'aburnee, maybe we'll also get to experience retrouvailles."  
  
He stared in the spot she had vacated, wondering what the hell that was supposed to mean. Maybe Mia would know if he could manage to wrap his head around the word to say it to her. He hoped it was a good thing, all things considering in their relationship. He _knew_ what he hoped for...  
  
Leave it to Leticia Ortiz to give him an insight into her head and it would require some sort of intense mental workout to make heads or tails of.  
  
She could try and claim she wasn't the girl who had loved him, but it was just one more thing that proved she was.


End file.
